Journaling

So I've been really bad about keeping up the blog lately. I never even posted pictures from Brooklyn's birthday in October. So I thought I'd just do kind of an eclectic blog with a few catch-up items.

October - Brooklyn's First Birthday & Halloween

Her birthday was on a Sunday so we just went to church and had a quiet little party for her at home with just us three.

Birthday Decorations

Pile o' Presents - featuring a new car seat!

opening presents

playing with her toy from Grandma & Grandpa Maner - sitting in her new car seat

the cake


the eating of the cake

For Halloween, we dressed Brooklyn up as a monkey and took her to the mall to trick-or-treat. She had fun, but the mall candy is definitely not the best quality. Too many dum-dums and smarties. =) I've got a couple pictures of her, but I can't find them right now so I'll add them in here later.

November - Thanksgiving

We were invited to my cousin Alicia's house for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful! The food was awesome and the company even awesomer. We got to see my cousin Evan for the first time since he got home from his mission to Seattle. We also got to go see the Twilight movie in the theater after the meal. Scott stayed home with his girls and ours and they had a great time playing. Thanks guys! (belated, I know) We forgot to take out our camera, but here's a few pics pilfered from Alicia's blog.

the whole crew

playing downstairs

the spread with the wonderful hosts!

December - Christmas

We drove down to Jason's parent's house in Snowflake, AZ for Christmas. Luann and Justin's family were there too. It was super fun and we all got some nice gifts. Brooklyn got a new princess chair and fridge toy, Jason got a remote-control helicopter and external hard drive, I got a massaging ottoman and some new shoes. Brooklyn had fun with her cousins and it was great spending some long overdue family time with everyone. We even got to see Jimmie's family quite a bit. We did take a lot of video, but not many still photos. These include a few we got from others:

We made gingerbread cookies before Christmas

Brooklyn enjoyed them

When Brooklyn first saw her cousin Katelyn (5 mos older), they grabbed onto each other and stayed that way for several minutes. So cute!!

The cast of the nativity - Jason and his brothers were the three wise men

Opening stockings

Our gift to Mom & Dad


Helping Brooklyn open presents


Family pic taken before church

January - Carter & Bako

Our nephew, Carter Nichols, was born on the 6th. We went to Bakersfield a couple weeks later to meet him and have "Christmas" with my family. We had a great time. Lucy and Brooklyn are getting to the age where they really play well together. We are so horrible at getting pictures. I still need to get some from my mom. Brooklyn and I are going back for Carter's blessing in March. I need to MAKE SURE to get pictures then.

February - Valentine's day

Jason told me a few weeks ago that we had reservations for V-day and he had a babysitter!!! We have only had a sitter a couple times since Brooklyn was born so some alone time was really exciting. We actually switched babysitting with our next-door neighbors. I watched their two little boys for a couple hours while they went to the temple and they watched Brooklyn while we went to Tucano's on V-day. It worked out great and I really hope we get to do it more often. I got a cute little Radio Flyer tricycle for Brooklyn on clearance for only $20. She really likes it. She doesn't know how to use the pedals yet, but she sits on it often while we push her or she just plays with the buttons/music on the dashboard. She has even figured out how to store things in the seat! Here are a few pics of our biker girl: